I don't own anything but my ideas.
Thermal Shock
The air was thick, but that could have been just how tight Zoro's throat was. With the lack of motion from Luffy though, it seemed more likely that the air was so thick that the only person capable of breathing in the trailer at the moment was the person at their feet. And Zoro wasn't honestly too sure if he even was still breathing.
It took Luffy exactly seven seconds to fully process what he was seeing, and suddenly, with a tremendous roar of "NAMI!" he heaved the entire crate out of the back of the truck where it smashed on the ground, exploding into splinters, nails, and strips of wood. Luffy dropped into a crouch to get a better look and Zoro finally regained some composure, realizing what was going on, and faltered slightly, nearly losing his balance and falling to the floor of the trailer.
When his vision finally evened out, he ripped a crowbar from its place on the side of the truck and jammed one end into the lid of another crate close to him. He snapped the top in two as he wrenched the crowbar down and lunged into the box, shuffling through the packing material and boxes whatever cargo was in this one. He shivered slightly as "cargo" ran through his head but forced himself to keep going.
He dug deeper and deeper, but his hands touched nothing out of the ordinary, and he was about to give up and pull back when his fingertips struck the bottom of the box. It was higher than the base should have been. Much higher. He pulled his hands out of the packing material and looked around at the crates stacked throughout the truck, unconsciously counting them as his mind fit together all of the pieces. Even in the dark of the trailer, he could see a row of nails around the middle of every one of the crates that could have only held the dividing piece of wood in place, otherwise the nails would have jutted straight through the contents of the boxes.
They had false bottoms. All of them.
There was a person in every single one of the twenty-four crates.
"WHY ARE YOU FLINGING THE CRATES AROUND?!" Nami screamed, grabbing ahold of the floor of the trailer and leaping over the debris littering the ground outside. "We have to pay for that now, you idio—"
She ground to a halt, souls of her sandals slipping against the thin steel as she gaped down at the mishmash of things scattered across the trailer bed. Despite the fact that the whole crate of guns would have easily cost them easily as much as they were being paid to ship this stuff, her eyes were only trained on the body at her toes, and if Zoro weren't so busy seething he would have commended her for her newfound sense of humanity. But as if was, he could feel the anger rolling off of him like toxic gas.
"…Nami," he hissed slowly, words rolling off of his tongue and through his clenched teeth like an angry miasma. He poked a finger towards the limp, bedraggled body, still too unnerved to really look at it. "We. Are carting. A shipment," he paused for a second, his voice hitching with anger, "of slaves."
Her mouth dropped open and closed a couple times as she floundered pathetically for words, unable to move but desperately wanting to look away if the screaming behind her eyes said anything.
"Is everything alright?" Usopp called from outside, and his and Chopper's noses appeared through the doors as they poked their heads in, pausing to take in the strange scene of frozen wax figures and guns and packing peanuts strewn across the floor. Chopper's head turned from person to person, trying to decipher the thick air, and he grabbed the handle on the side of the truck, clambering up into the back.
Chopper's reaction was the only one that wasn't severely delayed.
"GYAAAAAAAAAH!" he screamed, eyes practically popping out of his head, voice echoing like an atom bomb around the trailer, and everyone flinched to cover their ears, snapping out of the trance.
"CALL A DOCTOR!"
Usopp's normal follow-up of "You're the doctor!" went unsaid, the long-nose still standing, dumbfounded, outside the trailer, trying to understand what he was seeing.
"Chopper," Nami whimpered meekly. "C-come… just come… come see—"
"What happened?!" Chopper shrieked, dropping to his knees beside the body and struggling to flip it over without jostling it too much. He gestured frantically in Zoro's direction Zoro and Zoro crouched after trying to decipher the movements for a second, turning the torso of the person—man—over while Chopper held his head and made sure his neck didn't twist. Not that that wouldn't have already happened what with the crate being flung around during the drive and he and Luffy dumping everything onto the ground. If his neck were going to break, it would have done so already. Luffy reached over to poke the body's limp arm and Zoro smacked his hand away sharply, not about to let his idiotic captain make the situation worse. Chopper already looked a little deranged with worry.
"Oh my god!" Usopp bawled suddenly, hands fisting in his hair as he fell back onto the pile of shattered crate outside the truck, creating another loud crash. "We took money for trafficking people! I WAS DRIVING THE TRUCK!"
Nami lurched backwards, stumbling in clipped spasms away from the guy as Chopper tipped the man's face up to make sure he was still breathing. Zoro swallowed heavily, half of him pleading with his eyes to look away and the other half of him arguing that they'd already made the bed, so they were going to have to lie in it, and he could stomach just looking at the broken body on the floor.
Yep, they were lying in this bed now, whether or not there was a dead guy in it with them.
Usopp's frantic caterwaul rang up through the trailer again. "WE'RE ALL GOING TO JAIL FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES!"
Chopper's hands flew over the man's body, checking his pulse, skin, neck, shoulders, nose, and verifying over and over again that his breathing and pulse were still fine to make sure he wasn't dying on them. Chopper fumbled around in his pocket, finally managing to pull out a small flashlight and he pushed back one limp eyelid, flicking the light in and out to watch the way his pupils reacted. Zoro ignored the deep purple bruise that could only come from an eye socket fracture, and his deep green eyes found the flat blue ones staring blankly out into space, but nevertheless reacting to the light the way Chopper seemed to want, because the small boy relaxed enough to sit back on his heels even though he was still shaking.
"I need my medical bag," he choked out, and Zoro nodded at Luffy, who leapt out of the truck and over Usopp's flailing body to run around to the front of the cab. Zoro wasn't sure where Nami had disappeared to. Hopefully to collect her thoughts so she could figure them the fuck out of this situation.
Zoro found a seat next to Chopper, air still thick enough to keep him from breathing properly, and pulled the shaking boy into his side. Chopper clung gratefully to his shirt, hiding his nose in Zoro's shoulder.
"…W-what if I can't do anything?"
Zoro looked down to the man sprawled out in front of them, his mouth lolling slightly open, head cocked to the side, fingers limp and curled. Zoro began counting the bruises, measuring the color in his mind, calculating how old they were, and tallying the number of fractures and full-blown breaks visible. The socket fracture, sprained ankle, dislocated shoulder, broken shin, and several fractured ribs were the obvious ones. The rest of his body—the skin that wasn't caked in dirt, at least—was littered with bruises of all stages of healing. He knew Chopper was doing the same and he was no doctor, but from the range of injuries, it was obvious this guy had suffered a lot of abuse over a significant period of time.
Spread out like that, the way Chopper had positioned him, the man almost looked like he could have been napping. If his chest hadn't been rising and falling so shallowly, Zoro would have been able to convince himself that he would be fine. As it was, he didn't feel confident enough to tell the little doctor that everything was going to be fine. Chopper took it harder if he felt more expectations were placed on him, and if this guy died, it was no fault of theirs.
"I'm calling Law," Nami announced, appearing suddenly behind them with a phone in her hand, her fingers flashing across the buttons. "Shanks is god knows where and Ace never answers his phone unless it's Luffy or Vivi and I can't find Luffy's phone, but Law will have an idea of what to do with him at least," she nodded to the guy. "The next call is an ambulance so we can at least keep murder off our records—I don't honestly think we'll have enough time to get away without being seen. There's nothing around for miles and no natural anything to hide in or on or under, and no way in hell we can bleach everything before they get here. It's like the fucking plains out here."
Chopper nodded sadly and returned to hiding in Zoro's larger frame. His escape was short-lived though as Luffy joined them in the back of the truck with the medical bag and Chopper was instantly at the guy's side again, shuffling through his equipment.
Nami finished dialing and placed to phone against her head, rocking back and forth nervously as she did, eyes gravitating to the man spread out on the floor. Zoro blinked, recognizing his own phone in her hand and began to ask when she cut him off.
"My phone was broken earlier in the truck."
At the same time Law's muffled -Yeah?- came through the phone and she pulled it away from her ear, pressing the speakerphone button. Zoro winced, too late to stop her. Killer would be at the club with Shanks now, helping set up for the fight that night, leaving Law and Kid at least three hours alone while still coming to terms with the stress of being underground again.
Static-smothered sounds of squeaking bedsprings and heavy grunts and breathing flooded the trailer and Zoro took a deep breath, trying not to pay attention to Chopper's eyes popping out of his head or Nami's muscle spasms as they realized what they were hearing. Kid and Law didn't care if Zoro heard, and honestly, he'd lived with them for too long in apartments with thin walls to really notice or care now. Poor Chopper though, the kid was too innocent for his own good sometimes.
-Yes? What, Zoro? I'm a little preoccupied,- Law asked again, annoyed now no one was answering him. A breathy moan echoed from behind him and Zoro winced again as both Nami and Chopper twitched. Even from across the trailer Zoro could hear that Law's voice was laden with sex, irritated or not. Nami swallowed, trying to get her tongue back in place before she spoke.
"L-Law… uh… it's Nami."
-Why do you have Zoro's phone?- Zoro followed the sounds of Law grabbing Kid to hold him still, voice tight as he waited for an answer. He was impressed Kid was actually waiting, though Zoro had just been away at a fight and could technically have been really hurt. In Shanks' territory they were his parents, so they would be the first ones to hear—maybe after Luffy.
"Mine was… broken—it doesn't matter," she waved her hand suddenly, as if he could see. "Zoro isn't hurt, but—"
-Oh good,- Kid cut her off from the background and Law grunted suddenly, his breathing picking up, sheets shuffling against the phone as it was presumably dropped. -Who cares then? Drive safe.-
"This is important!" Nami barked, voice getting more and more out of control, and if Zoro knew her at all her stress level meant that she was about to cry. Ugh. He stood up and pulled the phone from her hand, not about to have to deal with her crying on top of everything else. Behind him, Chopper was wrestling with the crowbar to open up the other crates, and Luffy went over to help him. Once the top was off, Chopper climbed into the crate and felt around to pull the false bottom off, motioning for Luffy to do the same to the other crates.
-We can't have two fucking minutes?- Kid snarled as Zoro walked back over to Chopper, who was checking the pulse of the guy again and sat back with a low breath after a moment. Still alive, then.
"Nami took a job from Blackbeard," he started, not bothering to wait, knowing that at least Law was listening. "He was supposed to drive a shipment twenty minutes outside of Shanks' territory and couldn't for whatever reason and offered her eighty thousand to do it. On the way back some of—"
-She took it?- Law asked suddenly.
"Yeah, but on the way—"
-Well that was… "stupid" I guess is the best word—-
"Shut up and listen for a second! A crate broke open on the way back—"
-You break it, you fucking pay for it,- Kid cut in, patience wearing thin. -Didn't we teach you anything?-
-Eustass, hold on a second, they actually sound a little distressed.-
Kid groaned and Zoro heard the sounds of more rustling as the larger man got up and padded away. He gritted his teeth and sucked in a large breath, done with this fucking situation.
"There are fucking people inside!"
That had done it. No sounds came from the other end of the phone.
"A false bottom fell out and there are people inside! We're shipping slaves!"
Law's voice was flat. -You took a job for Marshall D. Teach shipping slaves.- He might as well have just called them fucking idiots and not wasted his breath.
"Not on purpose!" Nami called from the other side of the trailer, voice wrung out with guilt and fear. "I checked the cargo myself, it was fine!"
-Well apparently it wasn't, now was it?-
Nami gritted her teeth and turned away sharply, wringing her hair in her hands.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Chopper gasped suddenly from the back of the trailer, and Zoro whirled, heart hammering in his chest, to watch the little doctor uncap a large syringe—with his teeth, he was in such a hurry—spider his fingers frantically up the side of the man's neck until he seemed to find the right space he was looking for and plunge the needle into the vein. The man coughed harshly once, a thick and saturated sound, blood spurting up from his lips, and then was still, but Chopper seemed satisfied to continue without the extremely rushed pace after the procedure.
-He's even shipping for Doflamingo now…- Law sounded tired.
"…The guy with the slave auction?"
-Yeah, that's him.- He let out a long sigh before asking vapidly, -So why are you calling?- Zoro could very clearly picture the expression he was making. He used to make it all the time when Zoro was younger and got in trouble at school. Law was all about the school dishing out punishment; Kid was more inclined to deliver it himself. -What are we supposed to do from here?-
"Zoro…"
Zoro glanced down to where Chopper's whimper had drifted from, blinking in confusion at the tears leaking from his eyes. He passed the phone to the small boy, who curled in on himself and clutched the phone to him like it was his lifeline.
"Law… the guy that fell out of the crate… h-he's," Chopper swallowed and swiped at his eyes, "he's dying."
Nami moaned and stalked out of the trailer, unable to handle the stress anymore. Luffy looked like he was about to follow, but decided at the last minute to stay and crouched down to hug Chopper tightly, who hiccupped in response.
"H-He just went into cardiac arrest, and I-I just gave him epinephrine to get his heart going again, but I only have five milligrams because normally there would be ambulances nearby during a fight and I wouldn't need it and he's going to go back into cardiac arrest soon and-and there are twenty-three more crates. If every one of these people gets like this then—!"
-Stop,- Law ordered from the other end and Chopper swallowed the rest of his words. -What did you give him?-
"One milligram. He was really bad, I couldn't hear anything listening at his chest."
-…All right, keep an eye on him and give him more as needed. Let's hope he can hold out long enough to get back. You're not close enough to anything to leave the truck and get away free, and you can't bring the truck here, so I want you to drive it to the pickup location.-
"What?!" Usopp squeaked. He had just joined the rest of them in the trailer, having composed himself enough to deal with the almost-dead body.
-Shanks cannot get tied into this, for any reason, at all. The marines are already breathing down our necks.-
-What the fuck is taking so long?- Kid's voice rose up again in the background.
-They took a job shipping slaves for Teach and one's dying on their hands. Help me get them back without making connections between Shanks and the truck.-
-…Well that was stupid. Why the hell did they do that?-
Zoro felt the phone creak in his hands and he gritted his teeth, screaming into the speaker. "We have a money-grubbing hellcat with us, that's why! What do we do?!"
-Look,- Law turned his attention back to the phone, -Drive the truck there, and five minutes out make an anonymous phone call to the police to tip them off. It'll take them at least ten minutes to get there. Drop it off, do whatever you were supposed to do to let Teach know you made it, and then get the fuck out of there before the police show. If you get seen, the marines will take this whole city down with no questions asked, and they'll have probable cause so the rest of the country will have no say, whether or not civilians live here. Have you checked on the other cargo yet?-
Chopper nodded, and then seemed to remember that that wouldn't suffice over the phone. "Everyone else seems fine. Battered, but fine. I don't know why this one is doing so badly. It's like he had an allergic reaction, but it's really slow moving."
-Or they overdosed him.-
"He would have had to have so much more anything the others got, there's no way a little extra anything could get him in such bad condition. No one could have made that sort of mistake. And he's about to go back into cardiac arrest now, I'm running out of epinephrine and the police will assume the truck has dangerous things in it so it might be locked down until they bring a special team in to do a sweep. There's no way he'll make it."
Zoro looked down to where the guy's breath had picked up again, even as shallow as it was, and a thin sheen of sweat had glossed across his head, making the dirt on his face run. Zoro felt his throat tighten again.
-Well fuck the rest of the shipment if they're fine.- That was Kid again, and the bed jostled through the phone as he sat down next to Law.
-Yes,- Law agreed. -Let's just assume they'll stay that way through police investigation. There's nothing else you can do for them anyways with what you have on you. This guy is an immediate concern, and the only way he'll survive is if we bring him here and treat him. Call Franky and tell him to pick you up so you don't have to worry about keeping a cab driver quiet. I'll have the OR set up for when you get here.-
-The roster,- Kid muttered from the background.
-Oh shit, you're right. Um… Somewhere in the crates, probably with one of the slaves, will be a roster. It's like an order slip, find his page and tear it out so the police don't think he's missing and won't look for him.-
"How do we know it's him?" Nami called from across the trailer. "It's not like we can really ask him his name or anything."
-Slave rosters always have pictures because the cargo will be unconscious upon arrival from the drugs for shipping.- Zoro could hear Law losing his patience with every time she talked back. -You should be able to compare them, yes?-
Nami nodded to Luffy and he leapt up, grabbing the crowbar and tearing the top of another crate open. Chopper wailed at the wild movements, begging Luffy to be careful not to hurt the people any more than they already were. Zoro crossed his arms and kept from asking how Law knew so much about this subject. It wasn't worth it.
Luffy let out a triumphant "Aha!" and jumped back down to the floor from his perch atop a stack of crates, sandals slapping against the metal. He held out a packet of papers stapled together and Nami snatched it from him, flipping through the pictures.
-Don't destroy his page, hopefully it will have medical information on it that we can use.-
"Hurry," Usopp whined, looking to the doors of the trailer as a car rushed by. "Before someone pulls over to see if we need help."
Nami glanced down to the beaten face and back to the packet again, eyebrows knitting in confusion as she turned back a couple pages, trying to match up the severely beaten face to its picture. Chopper stood and looked at the two profiles she was comparing, bending down after a moment to pull back the man's eyelid, and the bright blue orb stared lifelessly off into space again, catching the dim light of the trailer.
"That's him."
Nami nodded and tore the page out carefully, handing it to Chopper before she began picking the scraps out of the binding. Zoro leaned over Chopper's shoulder, taking in the strong, set face of the unconscious man in the picture. His blond hair—now brown from all of the dirt—was brushed out of the way to reveal two incredible and ridiculous curly eyebrows, both even facing in the same direction. Zoro looked down again, squinting through the dark lighting and the dirt until he found said eyebrows. In the shape of a swirl. He almost laughed at the absurdity, even though the guy—Black-leg, Sanji, he read off the paper—was in the midst of dying. He'd never been good at heavy moments.
Weird name too.
Nami slammed the stack of papers into Luffy's chest when she was done and he "oofed" heavily, looking at her in bewilderment.
"Put that back where you found it and start putting everything back where it was," she ordered, calmer now that there was a realistic and optimal end goal that didn't involve jail or a dead person. "I'm calling Franky now, it will take him longer to get here than it will for us. He can wait outside the warehouse for us. Luffy and Chopper will get dropped off outside with him so they can take this guy, uh, Black-leg," she waved vaguely at him, still preferring not to look at him. "And Usopp, Zoro, and I will drive the truck in. Don't say anything, either of you. Usopp, open the back of the trailer to show them the cargo is there and fine—oh god damnit. Um, I guess shove the crate with the lid you broke in the back under the other ones so they can just see that it's there. I'll get on the phone with Teach and say we dropped it off. That's it, then we leave, go get in Franky's car, and get the hell out of there before the police show."
Chopper thanked Law quietly and passed the phone back to Zoro, who took in his terrified expression and offered him the phone back. "You have anymore questions?"
Chopper bit his lip, looking unsurely to the limp body beneath them. "No."
Oh yeah, he had a lot of questions. Zoro laid a hand on his shoulder, pulling him in close again and switched the phone off, sliding it back into his pocket.
Nami blew out a deep breath and jammed her hands in her hair. "All right… Ok… Luffy, Usopp, get this place organized enough so that they won't be suspicious and search it. Zoro, Chopper, let's get him moved to the cab. Gently," she added, jabbing her finger at them.
Zoro nodded and waited until Chopper had closed his medical bag and backed nervously out of the way before he slid his hands under Sanji Black-leg's body, lifting him off the ground like he was a set of sheets instead of a person. Zoro wondered grimly how long it had been since they fed him last. Zoro felt his fingers gripping any clothes he could—lest the man blow away in his hands from the sudden air movement.
Chopper guided him with a gentle hand on Sanji's shoulder, pushing things out of Zoro's way so he didn't trip and scurrying like a frightened puppy alongside them. Zoro knew he didn't feel like he wasn't doing enough. He waited as Chopper pulled open the door to the cab and climbed in. Once Chopper had cleared the sleeper bunk in the back, Zoro found his footing on the side of the truck and hoisted them up, being careful not to hit any part of Sanji on the metal.
"Zoro!" Chopper gasped suddenly, lunging towards the older man over everything he had just pushed out of the way, sending it flying. His eyes were wide, hands flying in a frenzy at his sides. "Put him down! Put him down!"
Zoro damn near dropped him in shock anyways from Chopper's gasp, managing to grab the emaciated body before it fell and place him carefully enough on the front seat. Chopper squeezed beside him even in the tight space and Zoro caught sight of the thick layer of sweat that had covered Sanji's visible skin. Instantly, his gaze found Sanji's chest, but the shallow breathing had ceased and his chest was eerily still.
Chopper rooted through his pockets, checking them again when he didn't come up with what he needed and let out a frustrated shriek. Zoro lunged forward, grabbing the medical bag Chopper had forgotten he'd thrown on the floor and shoved it into his arms. Chopper wrenched it open, spilling half of the contents onto the floor as he pulled a syringe from the bottom of the bag, jamming it into Sanji's neck again, and a raspy breath jolted the grimy chest before the shallow breathing continued.
Three more doses.
Zoro didn't wait for Chopper to move and heaved himself into the truck, lifting Sanji over the seat and dumping him on the sleeper before he jumped out of the truck, dashing around to the doors of the trailer where Nami was just getting off the phone and Usopp and Luffy were pushing the resealed crates back into their stacks.
"He's dying, let's go," Zoro barked, grabbing Nami's hand to help her out. She waited anxiously beside him until Luffy and Usopp had jumped down to slam the doors with him and latch them.
They crammed themselves into the cab in a mad scramble, everyone on top of each other in the rush to get moving. Usopp, tight-lipped and hunched over the wheel, barely waited for the door to be closed before he gunned the engine and sped out onto the road, tires squealing against the pavement. Everyone fought desperately to keep their gaze straight ahead, but after a while every set of eyes started flicking back to the unconscious man in their cab as Chopper tended to him. The care was all but useless, but Zoro was sure it made Chopper feel better.
Two doses in fifteen minutes, and another twenty-five before they were back at Shanks' and could actually do something. And he was getting worse.
Zoro looked down at the almost-corpse next to him, trying to keep images of his broken body and the rest of the people in the crates splayed out on a stage, embellished with chains and drugged out of their minds, out of his mind. Even as Chopper filled another syringe with a clear, thick, liquid and slipped it slowly into Sanji's inner elbow and Zoro counted the number of needle marks lacing Sanji's arm, he felt his stomach turn. He didn't want to see how many were on Sanji's other arm, and made a note not to look too deeply anywhere else while he was at it. The lighting was better in the cab than it had been in the trailer, and he didn't want to know everything that had been done to Sanji. It wasn't his business, and he didn't want to know that private part of Sanji if he survived.
"Was that epinef… whatever?"
Chopper shook his head. "That's specifically to make the heart beat again, it makes the muscles squeeze tightly and the blood gets pushed through, kick starting the heart. This will keep the beating from speeding up and hold it at a regular pace—hopefully—so he won't go into cardiac arrest again as soon. I'm really not supposed to administer it at a time like this, he really needs a defibrillator and some more specific medications, but we don't have them so I have to do something to get the other doses of epinephrine to last until we get back to Law."
Zoro nodded uselessly, and without even thinking about it, gripped Sanji's shoulder a little bit tighter, mostly to make sure that he wouldn't fall off of the bed if Usopp had to stop short. He eyed the shallow shifts in Sanji's chest, letting out a breath he didn't realize he was holding when Sanji's strained gasping suddenly evened out, and though it was still shallow, he seemed much less pained at the muscle use.
"It's amazing," Chopper murmured to himself, staring intently at Sanji's roster page in his hands, and Zoro raised an eyebrow in question.
"It's just…" Chopper shook his head. "They've pumped him full of so many drugs, it's a wonder the others aren't all in his condition too."
Nami turned from her motionless position in the front seat to look over Chopper's shoulder, scrutinizing everything with her anxious gaze. "That wasn't how much the others were given. …At least, not the ones I saw when I was looking for his page in the roster. Like that one," she pointed to something on the list, "that's almost double what the others had."
Chopper just blinked, his eyes more perplexed than Zoro had seen him in a while. "But why would they sedate him to this point?"
"Strong fighter?" Usopp offered, his voice tight. "Like Luffy or Zoro?"
Chopper shook his head again. "It doesn't make any sense. Any doctor looking at this would see that it would kill him, especially with how skinny and light he is. He barely weighs as much as Luffy does. …Though that could be from how little they've fed him too."
"Maybe it wasn't a doctor," Zoro grunted. It wouldn't be the first time a slave had died from improper treatment. Chopper nodded after a moment, and then shifted nervously before pulling out his stethoscope and checking Sanji's heart again, looking for anything to do.
Nami took a deep breath suddenly and slipped Usopp's phone out of her purse, having lost Zoro's to him again. "Don't go too slow," she murmured to the long-nose as she pressed the phone to her ear. "We don't want to call any attention to ourselves." He just nodded in response.
The cab went silent, no one daring to speak so as not to further mess this up.
Zoro heard the click on the other end of the line, and before the person answering could even state where Nami was calling she had cut him off.
"The back of the old warehouse behind the strip mall closest to your station will receive a shipment of slaves and other illegal goods in twenty minutes." And with that she hung up, not daring to breathe until she had completely closed the phone.
Zoro whipped around as Chopper lunged toward Sanji, sinking another syringe into his neck and quelling the beginnings of another attack. Chopper sat back with a slow breath after verifying Sanji's vitals, double checking to make sure he still had the right amount of medicine on him and hadn't counted wrong.
Two more doses.
"F-Franky's coming?" Chopper asked nervously from the back, and Nami nodded before leaning over Usopp, ignoring his squawk that he couldn't see with her in front of him, and rolled down the window just enough to toss the phone out before sitting up again. She ran her hands tiredly over her eyes and rested her head back against the seat. No one spoke.
The buildings grew taller and closer together as they pulled into the black of the city, Usopp drifting down the empty roads, street lights lighting up Sanji's mangled form every other second. Zoro steeled himself and averted his eyes, not wanting to automatically start counting injuries again.
"Luffy," Nami spoke up quietly, turning the equally (and strangely) quiet young man toward her. "You go with Chopper. I want Zoro with me so he can take everyone out if need be. No offence, but punches take more time to kill people."
Luffy looked like he was about to protest, and Zoro wanted to join in, but Nami cut them off.
"We need someone really strong with Chopper. He'll be all by himself and paying attention to making sure Black-leg doesn't die. Franky will be focusing on getting away and he won't be able to really help." She turned to look him in the eye, a pained look crossing her face. "Please."
Luffy was still, and then nodded, shifting his hat lower on his head as Usopp pulled the truck to the side of the road, brakes squealing slightly as the truck jolted to a stop just around the corner from where the headlights of Franky's blue '69 Charger was parked. It was his pride and joy, and the fact that he had brought it along to something so dangerous meant that Nami had sounded really scared on the phone and he hadn't bothered going home to pick up his beater from the garage.
Zoro pushed the door open and Chopper jumped out, waiting until Luffy had jumped out and Zoro had passed the limp body to him. Chopper checked his breathing and pulse once more before dashing toward Franky's car, Luffy trotting behind him.
"Go," Nami ordered after watching Franky step out once they reached the car. Usopp nodded, already turning the wheel to pull away. Nami ran a hand roughly through her hair, trying to settle herself down with another rough exhale. It would never work as a relaxer if she did it that quickly.
Her next murmur was barely audible over the sound of the engine and their own hearts pounding in their ears. "Here's the plan. Pull in fast, jump out, and immediately open the trailer doors so they can see that all of the boxes are there. Don't talk to anyone, pretend like that was what Blackb—uh, Teach told us to do. I will get someone's phone and call him, say that we dropped off, and then we get the hell out of there. Don't go straight to Franky's car. We'll have somewhat of a walk anyways but just in case. We have to get out before the police show though. We have ten minutes, fifteen from what I told them on the phone but something tells me they won't risk being right on time."
Neither Zoro nor Usopp answered, but Zoro rested a hand on his swords, feeling their strength rooting him to the ground and keeping him calm, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Usopp shift so the weight of his gun would rub against his hip, making sure it was ready to go.
Around the next corner, the strip mall came into view, and Usopp pulled quietly through the parking lot around to the back where an old abandoned warehouse—paint peeling, shutters falling off their hinges, broken glass tinkling against the ground as it was pushed around by the wind—loomed in the shadows. Usopp shuddered and a terrified sound fell from his throat, making Nami jump beside him. Zoro's brows furrowed, and he shifted himself so he could jump out of the truck quickly if need be.
Nine minutes.
Zoro felt the truck shift as Usopp applied the brakes, not sure where to park it, when a long string of chains hanging near one of the loading docks suddenly clanked and with a metallic grunt the door jerked upwards, disappearing slowly into the ceiling of the loading bay. Zoro leaned forward, glaring into the darkness to count the people. Usopp pulled in and the truck squealed to a halt again, and then went silent as Usopp killed the engine.
Nami swallowed heavily, hands shaking as she nudged Zoro, urging him out of the truck. He flung the door open and jumped down, arms folded tightly and perfectly in reach of his swords. Usopp leapt down from the other side and marched toward the trailer, yanking the stiff doors open with a grunt as two men came forward to verify the contents. Looking as manly as possible, Usopp scuttled to Zoro's side to stay out of their way.
Nami straightened her back, darkened her gaze, and strode forward, right up to the man that seemed to be overseeing everything. Most of his face was obscured by a black top hat, but it didn't help to disguise his lanky height or dark blue overalls. He was also swinging a long red cane by his side that every once and a while he would tap against the ground. He gave her a leering smile framed with bright red lipstick at her forwardness—and probably the fact that she was a woman—but she ignored it with a sniff.
Eight minutes.
Nami held out her hand, and he paused for a second before reaching forward to take it. She yanked her hand back like he was diseased, reaching out again expectantly like she was waiting for more money.
"Teach," she growled when he didn't move.
The man grinned again, not moving for another moment and Zoro felt his shoulders stiffen. If they stalled at all—
But he suddenly reached into his back pocket and pulled out an old phone, passing it to Nami. Her fingers were a blur over the keys as she searched through the contacts even before she was even close enough to read the small screen.
"In no mood to hang around, eh?" the man asked, sauntering toward Nami's side, shoes clicking loudly against the floor and echoing around the building.
Tap shoes?
Zoro took a warning step in his direction. The man eyed Zoro, weighing the situationbefore he stopped a safe distance from her. Usopp's head flicked around to where two others had stepped forward at Zoro's advance and shivered blatantly.
Seven minutes.
Nami held the phone up to her ear, standing there for nearly thirty seconds, growing antsier and antsier at every ring, and the man grinned wider.
"Maybe he's not there. You might have to hang around until he is."
Six minutes.
Usopp made a choked "eep" and stepped closer to Zoro and Nami shot him a dark glare just as something clicked on the other end.
"Yeah, we got here," she answered after a moment. "…Well what do you want from me? There was traffic after the fight. That's not something under my control and not something you can hold me accountable for. …Of course everything's fine. …Your men have already—! Ugh, fine, here he is."
Five minutes.
She thrust the phone back to the man and he took it nimbly, letting his fingers brush along hers for a lingering second. Zoro watched the tremor in her shoulders and took another step forward, leveling the asshole with a look that told him very clearly what would happen to him the next time he pulled that shit. The man seemed to get the message and took a step back, but he clearly wasn't fazed at all by the show of protection.
"This is Laffitte… It seems to all be here, and they seem pretty eager to go." He gave Nami another wide smile.
Four minutes.
"No, I shouldn't think so…" Laffitte paused, looking between the three of them before he suddenly chortled loudly, and all three flinched at the sudden echo. "Only three, now that you mention it. I'm not sure where the others have been lost to."
Shit.
They froze, Nami's eyes snapping open as she realized what they were talking about, but recovered instantly and kept her gaze leveled with him. All was as it should have been.
"…No, I haven't asked. I can if you wish."
"We dropped them on the way here," Nami jutted in, but Laffitte only grinned. Zoro growled. The display was only to make her nervous. Of course those bastards didn't give two shits where their crew was as long as the shipment was there.
Three minutes.
"…Well, I suppose it's none of our business… Yes, I will tell her." He hung up suddenly before slipping the phone back into his pocket and dipping into a low bow, cane swung out in front of his pointed toes. "He asks that I thank you sincerely for your time and hopes that we may do business in the future. And he hopes your friends are fine as well."
Nami nodded, a clipped spasm, and murmured a "Thank you" and something about them eating and how it would be a pleasure to work with them again. A pinched smile crossed her face before she turned on her heels, walking toward Zoro in the most normal way she could manage. He turned the second she was close enough, leading Usopp out the door behind him.
Two minutes.
"You couldn't make that go any faster?" Usopp hissed once they were outside and the door had been shut behind them. Nami gave him a sharp whack on his head. Zoro shot them both a glare, not in any way in the mood for this.
"Here," he ordered, turning sharply down an alley, but Nami grabbed his collar roughly and yanked, spinning him in the opposite direction.
"Here," she corrected with a growl, and he glared back, but still followed behind her.
"Where are the police?" Usopp whispered after a silent minute, looking around. "What if they drive the truck out and leave with those people before they get here?"
"They should be here any minute. I told them twenty minutes ago about seventeen—"
Nami stopped and they strained, picking up the small echo of a wailing siren off in the distance, and getting closer fast.
They shared a glance, a panicked urgency leaching into the air, and took off sprinting down the street following Nami. She lead them through a maze of twists and turns before they suddenly rounded a corner and Nami ran straight into Franky's chest, letting out a alarmed yelp at the sudden grip on her shoulders as he grabbed her. Zoro's hand snapped to his swords at the sound, but Franky's hand flashed forward and grabbed him before he could do anything.
"Where have you perverts—idiots been?" he growled under his breath, dragging them toward the car parked in the shadows behind them. "Chopper already gave the guy another dose, he only has one left and he's not doing super at all!"
Franky practically tossed Zoro at the car, letting Usopp scramble towards it behind him. He placed Nami in front of the door and letting her climb in herself as he settled himself in the front seat. The engine roared to life and he gunned it, tires peeling out against the pavement.
"No…!" Chopper wailed not moments after the car had picked up speed, sliding another needle into Sanji's neck, adding a fifth pinprick to the others. Chopper pulled back, looking miserably at the sweat-soaked and shivering body of the limp man splayed out on the back seat. He let out a weak cough, and then fell so still that Chopper had to lean forward to check his breath and make sure he was still breathing. Chopper turned to Franky, tears running down his face as he bit harshly into his lip. "That was my last milligram and it's not taking because he's had so much… he's not going to make it!"
Franky gritted his teeth. "Not if I have anything to say about it!"
He slammed his foot down on the gas pedal, snapping it to the floor and everyone yelped as the car shot forward, tearing through the streets.
"Franky!" Nami gasped, grabbing onto his shoulder, eye glued on the black surroundings in front of the windshield rushing by. "You're going to get us killed!"
"Don't you worry, sis, all we have to do is cut this drive back a little bit. We'll be ok, I promise!"
"You have to stop at the check points outside the city too! If you're going to fast, they'll get suspicious—"
Franky turned to grin at her, too comfortable with the car and the directions to worry about looking at the road. Zoro gulped anyways, watching the trees shoot past them like flashes from a green strobe light. Nami's muscled locked in the front seat and she grabbed ahold of the car's door handle, Usopp whimpering behind her and clutching Chopper.
"Please," Franky scoffed. "You're insulting me. As if they wouldn't recognize this super machine."
-oOo-
Franky screeched to a halt in front of the fight club where Law, Kid, and Shanks were already waiting outside. Zoro flung open the door, trying to get out of the way so Law could see Chopper desperately doing compressions on Sanji's chest and quickly losing energy. He'd been pushing nonstop for the last ten minutes of the drive and hadn't let anyone take over for him. Zoro had one foot on the ground and was halfway out of the car before Law appeared like a phantom on top of him, draped across his lap, and jammed a huge syringe into Sanji's neck. Before Zoro could even react to the invasion of space, Law had grabbed Sanji's collar and yanked him over Zoro's legs and out of the car where he spilled across the ground like a ragdoll.
"Eustass!" Law barked, but Kid was already there, grabbing the guy's feet as Law lifted his shoulders and they rushed him inside. Chopper was blubbering Sanji's medical history of the last half hour, running alongside them as they went, still panting from the compressions.
Zoro's feet followed after them unconsciously, trailing all the way to the operating room that Law had haphazardly set up in the short time they had. Law passed Sanji to Kid, who dumped him unceremoniously on the table, ignoring Chopper's wail at the treatment. Law threw on gloves, not even bothering to wash or change, and rounded on the table. He grabbed Sanji's roster page from Chopper, scanning it quickly and Kid yawned, deciding he wasn't needed anymore.
"I'm going to catch the rest of the fight," he muttered to Zoro as he passed. "Might as well if I can't get laid and I'm already here. I'm going to grab Killer from Shanks, so he'll be home with Traf and I tonight."
That was right, there was a fight going on tonight.
No part of Zoro wanted to go and watch.
Law chuckled to himself, muttering "idiots," as Chopper crossed the room to close the door, already in his own pair of gloves.
"…What?" he asked timidly, trotting over to where Law was looking.
"No wonder this guy is so fucked up. This is more sedatives than we use on Luffy and Zoro combined when they won't stay down."
Zoro's eyes popped and his lips fell open slightly; it hadn't hit him before. Chopper had said they had given him a lot of drugs, but both he and Luffy went through an obscene amount of sedatives after a fight if they were injured—a fact that Nami loved to constantly remind him was extremely expensive. It was like their bodies thought the drugs were water; Luffy took enough for an elephant, and Zoro knew he wasn't far behind.
Zoro's eyes traced the blond form as Chopper rushed about him, more and more frantic the less troubled Law seemed. Zoro eyed the worst wounds across Sanji's skin, turned calico with the blue, green, and yellow bruises and open wounds that were leaking blood onto the table. There was a lot of damage. Whoever had done this to him had really meant to do harm. And with that many sedatives… maybe they were hoping that he wouldn't wake up.
-oOo-